Erwin Scharf

Born Aug. 29, 1914. Figure in the Austrian working-class movement.

Scharf joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria in 1934. He lived abroad during the period from 1938 to 1945, when Austria was part of fascist Germany, and took part in the antifascist struggle as a member of the Austrian freedom battalion of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army.

Scharf became a member of the Socialist Party of Austria in 1945 but was expelled for criticizing the opportunism of the party’s leaders. He subsequently organized the League of Progressive Socialists, which was later renamed the Socialist Workers’ Party of Austria. Scharf was elected chairman of the party. After the party merged with the Communist Party of Austria in July 1956, he was named a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPA.

Between 1957 and 1965, Scharf was editor in chief of the newspaper Volkstimme, the main press organ of the CPA. He was named secretary of the Central Committee of the CPA in 1965 and editor in chief of the journal Weg und Ziel, the party’s theoretical organ, in 1974.

Scharf was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1974.